The present invention relates to an assembly for suspending an article below a support, and is particularly directed to such assemblies which allow travel of the article along the support, which comprises the guide rail or the like. Such hanger assemblies are used, for example, to hang or support articles such as clothes, curtains, and various inventory items.
Such hanger assemblies normally comprise a trolley for travelling along the support rail, a hook or other device for securing to the article to be suspended, and a hanger link for connecting the trolley to the hook. A series of trolleys and connected hooks will be provided along the rail for suspending either a series of articles, or a single article of flexible sheet material such as a curtain.
One specific application of such hanger assemblies is for suspending hospital curtains for surrounding a patient's bed or other area. In this case an overhead rail will travel around the area of the bed, and a curtain will be suspended from a series of trolleys which travel around the rail either to enclose the bed or to pull back the curtain to reveal the bed.
It is a requirement for curtains surrounding hospital beds that a gap is left above the curtains so that water from the fire sprinkler system will reach the enclosed area in the case of a fire. A further benefit of lowering the curtains is that a patient will receive sufficient conditioned air for adequate ventilation when the curtains surround the bed. In the past, this has been done, for example, by suspending the curtains from the overhead trolleys by connecting drop chains of sufficient length to allow an adequate gap above the curtain. The drop chains are secured to the trolleys at one end by means of hooks, and have hooks at the opposite end for hanging the curtains.
One problem in a curtain hanger assembly of this type, and in any hanger assembly where the assembly must travel around corners, is that there is a tendency for trolleys to bind at the corners. If the assembly is supporting curtains, the curtains will tend to bunch up at the corners as a result. Since the curtain support rail will be fairly high, it will be difficult to release the trolleys for smooth travel of the curtains. One way of reducing the tendency of trolleys to bind or jam at the corners of their support rail is to provide drop chain loops between adjacent hanger assemblies. In hospital curtain hanging assemblies this is normally done by providing draw chain loops connecting successive trolley hooks.
Thus, previous hospital curtain hanging assemblies have comprised an overhead rail surrounding the bed, a series of short bodied trolleys in the rail for travel around the bed, a series of hooks each secured to a respective one of the trolleys and a length of metal drop chain secured to the trolley hook with a second hook at the lower end of the drop chain for being secured to the curtain. Metallic draw chains are provided between adjacent trolley hooks in the assembly, to draw the subsequent trolleys at a spaced distance as the curtains are moved around the bed.
There are a number of problems with this type of construction. One is that the metal chains are unsightly. The chains are also difficult to clean. The chains will tend to tangle together during travel, with the draw chains tending to loop over a trolley hook several hangers ahead. This causes problems in untangling the chains.